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by rytor718 1800 days ago
Ive been saying this for over a decade: we're working on the wrong problem right now with autonomous vehicles. Their chief obstacle is operating on the roads with humans. They need dedicated infrastructure where only autonomous vehicles operate. Anything short of this will be implemented in very restrictive, small, niche areas and never become the new way most people move around. Tesla and Uber, et al have taken this as far as it will go without infrastructure in my opinion.

I think we'll be on the right track when city planners reclaim some of our current roads and make them available only to autonomous vehicles. They'll need their own garages, highways and streets to operate to fully realize it. For example, FSD vehicles can be moved to dedicated streets similar to how alleys work in many cities currently (where they're largely routes for maintenance and utilities -- removing them from normal commuter traffic).
2 comments
heavyset_go 1800 days ago
> I think we'll be on the right track when city planners reclaim some of our current roads and make them available only to autonomous vehicles. They'll need their own garages, highways and streets to operate to fully realize it.

I'd rather subsidize automated electric trolley lines in cities than subsidize exclusive roads for automated personal vehicles.

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nradov 1800 days ago
I don't want my tax money wasted on that. In most urban areas there's simply no space for separate autonomous vehicles roads. Would rather see that money spent on maintaining existing roads and improving schools.
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rytor718 1800 days ago
And thats fair, every locale gets a say on how their city functions. For myself, I'd rather not have my town made up primarily of private vehicles clogging up traffic. I'll take a trolley/bus/train/cab any day of the week if I can get to where Im going quickly. I suspect most people who have to commute feel the same way: the shortest, fastest transportation. Few want to spend hours of their day in any vehicle.

That doesn't mean I don't want any roads for private vehicles. Just that need not make up 99% of them. Even if we knocked that down to 75% of roads I think we'd see amazing positive impacts on every metric (except the private roads; those will continue to suffer from congestion until cities offer a better way to get people from A to B).

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